Apparatus for selectively feeding sheet material from a plurality of coils



Sept. 6, 1966 w. A. RIED ETAL APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVELY FEEDING SHEET MATERIAL FROM A PLURALIIY OF COILS Filed Nov. 25, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 mN S INVENTORS WALTER A. RIED AND JOSEPH J. SCHRADER, JR.

ATTORNEY p 5, 1966 w. A. RIED ETAL 3, 0,

APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVELY FEEDING SHEET MATERIAL FROM A PLURALITY OF COILs Filed Nov. 25, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS WALTER A. RIED AND JOSEPH J. SCHRADER. JR

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3 270,931 APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVELY FEEDING SHEET MATERIAL FROM A PLURALITY 0F COILS Walter A. Ried, St. Louis, and Joseph J. Schrader, Jr.,

Florissant, Mo., assignors to Engel Equipment, Inc.,

St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Filed Nov. 25, 1964, Ser. No. 413,848 Claims. (Cl. 226-49) The present invention relates generally to sheet material feed apparatus, and more particularly to a combination multiple feed roller and selector mechanism for automatically uncoiling and feeding sheet metal supplied from a plurality of sheet metal coils. Such apparatus is especially suited for coils disposed one behind the other in conventional flow-line arrangement, where it is desirous to change the feed from one coil to another Without interference and without rewinding the metal upon the coils.

In job shop sheet metal fabrication it is customary to have available several coils of sheet metal, each used for varying end products and diifering one from the other in gage, width, and other such characteristics. These coils are supported for rotation in cradling base structures one behind the other so that the flow of sheet metal to equipment, such as a power shear, is along the same line and in the same direction. Heretofore, change-over from one sheet metal to another in this flow-line arrangement has required much effort and consumed considerable operator time. At changeover the sheet metal had to be withdrawn from the processing line and rewound onto its respective coil to permit access to the line by another sheet; then the operator had to walk down the line to another coil, uncoil the sheet metal, convey it over the other coils leading back to the processing line, and introduce it by hand between two feed rollers.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a novel feed roller mechanism for use in feeding sheet material from a plurality of coils disposed in line one behind the other, wherein the material of each coil is readily available for selection and may be readily advanced to a cut-off station and retracted therefrom.

A further object of the invention is the provision of apparatus for use in feeding sheet material from a plurality of coils, wherein selection of sheet material from any of the coils is readily made by selectively engaging a readily changed coupling mechanism.

Still another object is to provide means for guiding sheet material so selected to a level at which a subsequent operation (such as sheet leveling) is to be performed.

To achieve these purposes and others evident from this specification, the present invention utilizes a unique feed roller arrangement having a plurality of sets of feed rolls, in combination with a power take-off selector mechanism which permits ready selection, feed and retraction and a feed guide which assures proper alignment of the selected sheet metal as it is fed.

Utilization of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosures made in the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of the selective coil feeding apparatus of the present invention shown positioned between a plurality of coils of sheet material and a shearing table;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the apparatus of FIG. 1 with roller portions broken away to reveal the guide mechanism;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary end view taken along line 33 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail view of the socket-retaining latch taken along line 44 of FIG. 3.

3,270,931 Patented Sept. 6, 1966 General arrangements Referring now to the figures wherein like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 a selective coil feeding apparatus, generally designated 10, installed to receive sheet material from a plurality of aligned coils a supported on cradle reels b and deliver material from a selected coil to a shearing table 0. In the operation of such selective feeding apparatus, sheet material is fed in the direction shown as from right to left in FIG. 1; that is, from coils a to the apparatus 10, and thence through a conventional leveler unit, generally designated 11, to the shearing table 0.

The selective coil feeding apparatus 10 includes a frame 12, a multiple feed roller mechanism 14, a selector mechanism 16, and an outlet guide 18. The frame 12 consists of two longitudinally-extending rails 24, 26 and two lateral rails 28, 30 of suitable metal construction, together with four vertical legs 32 by which such rails are supported.

Multiple feed roller mechanism Two parallel spaced, upwardly-extending roller supports 38, 40 are secured to the longitudinal rail members 24, 26 of the frame 12 by means of brackets 34. These roller supports are of identical metal plate construction,

' each having horizontally-extending bores 42, 42, respectively, which are in lateral registration. The bores 42, 42' of the respective roller supports 38, 40 are grouped in which lie in an are designated by the dashed line d-d of FIG. 1.

Journaled rotatably at their ends within the laterally aligned bores 42, 42' are a plurality of horizontally-extending lower and upper feed rollers 44, 46, respectively. Like the bores 42, 42, these rollers are grouped in pairs of two to comprise a set, there being illustrated provisions for six of such roller pair sets. Each roller 44, 46 has a steel tubular core 48 (FIG. 3) which is covered with a suitable rubber or plastic compound 50 suitable for feeding the sheet metal without marring it.

The lower roller 44 of each set is a driven roller which has reduced diameter ends 52 extending through the lower bores 42, 42' of the bore sets. Thus, the centers of rota tion ee of these driven rollers 44 are fixed. Taken together the centers of all of the driven rollers 44 define the arc dd as best seen in FIG. 2. This arcuate arrangement of the centers of rotation is significant for reasons elaborated on hereinafter. The extending rods 52 of the driven rollers 44 are provided with squared drive portions 54 in order to facilitate the coupling arrangement also to be described hereinafter.

Spaced above the driven roller 44 a distance corresponding to the gage of material to be received therebetween, is the upper complementary idler roller 46. The idler roller 46 is supported for rotation in the bores 42 of the supports 38, 40 by means of conventional eccentric cam roller mounts 58 at their ends; see FIG. 3. They are provided with a slot 62 so that a screwdriver may be inserted Within their slots to raise and lower the centers of rotation f of the idler rollers 46.

By means of these roller pair sets 44, 46, as many as six sheets of material may be fed one over the other to the coil line unit 10 as shown in FIG. 1.' Thus, a plurality of roller sets are avail-able at the feed roller mechanism 14 for selecting and indexing the sheet metal to subsequent operation stations.

Selector power take-ofl er 44 and the idler roller 46. The selector means consists of a power take-01f arm 64 carrying a chain and sprocket mechanism 66 which lies in a vertical plane adjacent to roller support 38. The power take-off arm 64 is pivotally journaled to a frame-mounted bracket 68 at a pivot axis designated by the line gg and is swingable about such pivot axis in a vertical plane. Its pivoted end is provided with a sprocket 70 rotatably journaled to the powered shaft 72. The powered shaft 72 is in turn coupled to a power source, for example an electric rnotor h, by means of a chain 73 and leveler unit feed roller 75, which is directly connected to the motor 11. The teeth 74 of sprocket 70 engage an endless chain 76 which drives a sprocket 78. The sprocket 78 is secured onto a horizontal driven stub shaft 84 for rotation near the opposite, swinging end 80 of the power take-off arm 64. This stub shaft 84 extends inward toward the multiple feed roller mechanism 14, and has a drive end 81 squared .to the same dimension as the roller drive end portions 54. The driven stub shaft 84 is spaced from the pivot axis gg of the arm 64 a distance which is equal to the radius of the arc d-d defined by the centers of rotation ee of the driven rollers 44.

Also carried at the swinging end 80 of the power takeoff arm 64 is coupling means, generally designated 82, carried by and coaxial with the inward projection of the stub shaft 84 for selective engagement with a drive portion 54 of any selected driven roller 44. This coupling means 82 is essentially a quick-release socket 86 having the form of a sleeve squared inside and out and slidably mounted on the slightly enlarged squared drive end 81 of the horizontal stub shaft 84. It may be thrust inward to receive and engage the squared drive portions 54, thus to deliver power to the driven rollers 44.

The socket 86 is retained inwardly in its selected engagement by latch means. Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, there is illustrated a support block 88 provided on the inner side of the power take-off arm 64 and including two bores 90, 92. The lower bore 92 receives a sliding rod 94 having a forked portion 96 at its forward end. The spacing within the forked end 96 is slightly greater than the diameter of the stub shaft 84 but small enough to keep the socket 86 from backing off the drive portions 54 to which it may be engaged. An upwardly and forwardly extending L-shaped locking finger 98 has its upper leg inserted through the upper bore 90 of the support block 88 while its other leg is secured to the sliding rod 94 near its rearward end. A spring 100 is disposed between ears 101 and the support block 88 to yieldably urge the forked portion 96 of the rod 94 to a position intermediate the sprocket 78 and the quick-release socket 86, where it prevents disengagement of the socket 86.

Outlet guide means Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown the sheet material guide 18 which is mounted upon the frame 12 at the outlet side of the multiple feed roller mechanism 14. Because the feed rollers are stacked one above the other between the roller supports 38, 40, the outlet guide 18 is provided to feed the sheet material to the level of feed rollers 75, 77 of a leveler unit 11, regardless of which roller pair set is energized.

A laterally-extending rod 104 adjacent to the base of the roller supports 38, 40 has its ends supported in framemounted brackets 106. At a higher level and spaced from rod 104 there is provided a similar laterally-extending rod 110 having its ends supported in vertical support brackets 107, 108 which are mounted to the frame 12.

The outlet guide 18 is mounted by means of the horizontally extending rods 104 and 110. The guide 18 consists of a laterally-adjustable guide plate portion 122 and a fixed guide plate portion 122 coplanar therewith. The plates are slopingly disposed between the rods 104 and 110 in a plane. The lower ends of the guide plate porportion 122 to the rods 104, 110. Adjustment of the,

plate portion 122 and abutment 124 allows the sheet material to be maintained square as it is advanced to the leveler unit 79. A generally U-sh-aped clamp 125 slides with the abutment 124 along the rod 110. The clamp 125 is used to fix the adjustable abutment 124 at the desired position along the rod 110.

Operation Sheets of material from the plurality of coils a are uncoiled and supplied to the feed roller mechanism 14, where they are separately threaded between the driven roller 44 and the idler roller 46 of the several feed roller pair sets. In so doing, the coil positioned nearest the feed roller mechanism 14 is threaded through the lowermost feed roller pair set, and the most remote coil is threaded through the upper roller pair set;.and intermediate coils are threaded through the intermediate roller pair sets. Thus, the sheets are spaced apart and held for ready selection at the feed roller mechanism 14.

The operator first unlocks the quick-release socket 86 by backing-off the forked portion 96 of the rod 94 from the squared drive end 81 of the driven shaft 84. This is accomplished by withdrawing the upper leg of the locking finger 98 from the upper bore of the support block 88 and rotating it to abut against the block 88. Having backed-off the fork portion 96 of the rod 94, the quick-release socket 86 is slidably moved outwardly toward the driven sprocket 78 to disengage it from the driven roller 11. Then the power take-off arm 64 is free to be pivoted about its pivot axis gg so that the quick-release socket 86 may be aligned with any selected one of the arcuately disposed driven rollers 44. The selected driven roller 44 is engaged by slidably moving the quick-release socket 86 over its squared end portion 54. The forked portion 96 is then returned to its socketrestraining position by rotating the upper leg of the locking finger 98 so that it is inserted in the bore 90. This allows the spring 108 to urge the rod 94 forward to a position which prevents the socket 86 from backing-off of the driven roller end portion 54.

Energization of the power source actuates the sprocket and chain mechanism 66 and drives the shaft 84 and the selected driven roller 44. The sheet metal which is advanced by the roller pair set droops down to contact the guide plate portions 122, 122' from whence it travels up the sloping guide plate portions 122, 122 and exits from the coil line unit 10 at the feed rollers 75, 77. The laterally-adjustable plate portion 122 and attached abutment 124 may be moved across the frame 12 so that the abutments 124, 124' maintain alignment of the material as it is being fed.

A substantial length of material will have been fed out from the roller sets 44, 46 to the shearing table 0. When it is desired to change to a different coiled sheet metal, the power source is reversed to drive the engaged roller in the opposite direction, whereby most of this length is retracted, so that it projects slightly from the roller sets, as shown in FIG. 1. The quick-release socket 86 is uncouped and the power take-off arm pivoted so that the socket 86 may 'be coupled, as described hereinabove, to a driven roller 44 which will advance another sheet of metal.

It may be seen that the selective feeding apparatus described makes available a plurality of different types, widths and thicknesses of sheet metals, each capable of being readily selected without involving time-consuming threading and rewinding operations; meanwhile being held gripped by its adjustable roller set.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

We claim:

1. For use in selectively feeding sheet material from a plurality of coils,the apparatus comprising a frame,

a plurality of horizontally-extending feed roller pair sets rotatably mounted on said frame and positioned at different levels one above the other, each pair being in constant gripping engagement, whereby the rolls of each set receive and retain between them sheet material from one of such coils Without interference, and

means carried by said frame for selectively engaging and reversibly driving a roller of a selected roller pair set, and for disengaging same,

whereby sheet material from one of the plurality of coils may be selected and advanced to a subsequent operation station and may be retracted therefrom.

2. For use in selectively feeding sheet material from a plurality of coils, the apparatus comprising a frame,

a plurality of horizontally-extending feed roller pair sets rotata-bly mounted on said frame and positioned at different levels one above the other,

each roller pair set comprising a driven roller, and

a complementary idler roller spaced apart from said driven roller a distance corresponding to the gage of sheet material to be received therebetween and fed thereby, and

means carried by said frame for selectively engaging and reversibly driving the driven roller of a selected roller pair set,

said selective engagement and said drive means include a power take-off arm pivotally secured to said frame and movable in a vertical plane about its pivot axis, and

coupling means carried by said arm for selective engagement with each said driven roller.

3. The sheet material feed apparatus of claim 2,

wherein said driven rollers have centers of rotation which lie in an arc, and

said coupling means is spaced from the pivot axis of said power take-off arm a distance equal to the radius of such arc.

4. The sheet material feed apparatus of claim 2,

wherein said power take-off arm includes sprocket and chain mechanism arranged in a vertical plane and connectable to a power source for actuation and including a driven sprocket adjacent to the coupling means, and

a driven shaft extending horizontally from and secured to said driven sprocket.

5. The sheet material feed apparatus of claim 2,

wherein said coupling means includes a quick-release socket slideably carried on said driven shaft.

6. The sheet material feed apparatus of claim 5, further comprising latch means having a spring biased restraining latch yieldably mounted on said power take-oh. arm and urged between said driven sprocket and said quick-release socket,

whereby upon coupling said power take-off arm to one of said driven rollers, disengagement of said socket from said driven roller is prevented.

7. For use in selectively feeding sheet material from a plurality of coils, the apparatus comprising a frame,

a plurality of horizontally-extending feed roller pair sets rotatably mounted on said frame and positioned at different levels one above the other, whereby the rolls of each set receive between them sheet material from one of such coils without interference, and

means carried by said frame for selectively engaging and reversibly driving a roller of a selected roller pair set,

each roller set including a driven roller having a fixed center of rotation, and

a complementary idler roller mounted to said frame by an adjustable eccentric cam whereby its center of rotation is movable toward and away from the fixed axis of rotation of said driven roller,

whereby the space between said driven rollers and the complementary idler rollers may be adjusted.

8. For use in selectively feeding sheet material from a plurality of coils to a level at which a subsequent operation is to be performed, the apparatus comprising a frame including a pair of parallel spaced-apart roller supports,

a plurality of horizontally-extending feed roller pair sets rotatably mounted on said frame and positioned at different levels above and below the level at which such subsequent operation is to be performed, whereby the rolls of each set receive between them sheet material from one of such coils without interference, and

means including a power take-off arm pivotally carried by said frame member for selectively engaging and reversibly driving a roller of a selected roller pair set,

together with sheet material guide means carried by said frame member on the outlet side of said roller pair sets and extending from the lowermost roller pair set upward to the level at which such subsequent operation is to be performed.

9. The sheet material feed apparatus of claim 8, wherein said guide means includes a vertically-extending abutment carried by said frame and adjustable laterally, whereby to maintain the sheet material square as it is advanced to such subsequent operation.

10. The sheet material feed apparatus of claim 8,

wherein said guide means includes a fixed guide plate portion and a laterally adjustable guide plate portion coplanar therewith,

each of said guide plate portions having an outer edge abutment.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,045,534 6/1936 Stevens 242-673 X 2,249,185 7/ 1941 Smaltz 226-49 3,069,058 12/1962 Hail 226-177 X 3,094,005 6/1963 Pressler 74-216.5 X 3,132,782 5/1964 Coates 226-108 X M. HENSON WOOD, IR., Primary Examiner.

J. N. ERLICH, Assistant Examiner. 

1. FOR USE IN SELECTIVELY FEEDING SHEET MATERIAL FROM A PLURALITY OF COILS, THE APPARATUS COMPRISING A FRAME, A PLURALITY OF HORIZONTALLY-EXTENDING FEED ROLLER PAIR SETS ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID FRAME AND POSITIONED AT DIFFERENT LEVELS ONE ABOVE THE OTHER, EACH PAIR BEING IN CONSTANT GRIPPING ENGAGEMENT, WHEREBY THE ROLLS OF EACH SET RECEIVE AND RETAIN BETWEEN THEM SHEET MATERIAL FROM ONE OF SUCH COILS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE, AND MEANS CARRIED BY SAID FRAME FOR SELECTIVELY ENGAGING AND REVERSIBLY DRIVING A ROLLER OF A SELECTED ROLLER PAIR SET, AND FOR DISENGAGING SAME, WHEREBY SHEET MATERIAL FROM ONE OF THE PLURALITY OF COILS MAY BE SELECTED AND ADVANCED TO A SUBSEQUENT OPERATION STATION AND MAY BE RETRACTED THEREFROM. 